Appomattox museum project to break ground this month

The $7.5 milliom Museum of the Confederacy project in Appomattox is slated
to break ground Sept. 23.
By Nolan Connelly
Lynchburg News & ADvance, September 08, 2010

  The Museum of the Confederacy has unveiled drawings of its planned museum
in Appomattox and announced plans for a Sept. 23 groundbreaking at the site
after raising $6 million toward the $7.5 million project.

  Construction is expected to end by spring 2012 on the 11,700-square-foot
museum near the intersection of Virginia 24 and U.S. 460, housing Civil War
artifacts where they were made famous.
  “There’s nowhere better to do it than Appomattox,” said S. Waite Rawls
III, CEO and president of the Museum of the Confederacy. “The very word
‘Appomattox’ carries so much meaning in history.”

  The museum will officially announce the groundbreaking in a new release
today.

  Rawls said the museum’s exhibits would encompass three major areas: the
events before the Civil War ended, the surrender at the McLean House and the
reunification of the country.

  Williamsburg-based architect Carlton Abbott has designed the building.
Rawls said it will evoke reverence so that visitors “are fully aware they’re
on an important spot.”

  “He excels at putting a building into a landscape,” Rawls said of Abbott,
“where the two of them fit with each other.”

  Members of local governing bodies hope the new museum serves as an
economic boost both to the Town of Appomattox and Appomattox County.

  “What I’m hoping will happen is more hotels and restaurants,” said Gary
Tanner, chairman of the Appomattox County Board of Supervisors. “It’s not a
big city, it’s relaxed — but it’s definitely where the Civil War ended and
people should visit here.”

  Appomattox Mayor Paul Harvey said the museum would complement the
Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, located about a mile from the
museum site.

  “It’s a great connection with the (national) park and we see it as an
increase in tourism and the number of people that visit Appomattox each
year.”

  Members of the museum’s board of trustees personally donated about $2.5
million to the project. “We have put our money where out mouth is,” Rawls
said.  Another $2.8 million came from the Virginia Tobacco Commission.

  The Appomattox museum is part of planned multi-site museum system, with
three more museums proposed for Fredericksburg, Fort Monroe and
Spotsylvania.

  Though the museum in Appomattox won’t be completed until 2012, Rawls said,
museum officials plan to schedule Civil War lectures at libraries and
schools in the area as a way to reach out to the community.

  “The door may not be open, but we’re here,” he said. “This is all systems
go.”
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Jon Kukla
www.JonKukla.com

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